Some homes across Birmingham have not had their rubbish collected for up to seven weeks (Picture: BPM)

Unite claim members of rival union GMB, which represents only a small number of bin workers, received an individual payment of up to £4,000 each to ‘reward’ them for not taking part in the 222-day strike in 2017.

Residents fear the city could be plunged back into the same mess, which saw some bins go uncollected for three months.

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The ballot result piles more pressure on negotiators to reach a deal as frustration grows among fed-up homeowners.

Angry residents say the bins are attracting rats and foxes as they continue to decompose.

One said her parents’ rubbish has not been collected for more than four weeks and bin bags were already piling up outside homes.

She said: ‘The smell is horrendous, the rubbish bags are ripped due to cats and even maybe rats eating out of them and the rubbish is all over the roads.

It is feared rats, such as these ones, could be feasting on the decomposing rubbish (Picture: PA)

‘This is absolute shocking, I have made numerous complaints to the local councilors and the Council House but nobody seems to care.

‘If all this rubbish was dumped outside the Council House I bet they would clear that up quicker than you could take a photo.

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‘Residents may just have to do that in order to get their rubbish cleared up.’

Her frustration was compounded on Thursday when a bin lorry turned up to take rubbish away from neighbouring South Road but did not collect anything from her parents’ cul de sac.

When confronted, the bin workers said they did not have time to get to them.

Workers have said they are working to rule (Picture: BPM)

Parts of the city have been called ‘disgusting’ (Picture: BPM)

Naveed Sadiq, who is part of a community outreach group said: ‘It’s absolutely disgusting in some parts of the city.

‘The council and the unions are like a married couple having problems and we, the residents, are the innocent party caught up in the middle of it. It’s very unfair and very frustrating.’

Announcing the new ballot result, Unison West Midlands regional secretary, Ravi Subramanian, said: ‘Industrial action is always the last resort but our refuse workers have voted overwhelmingly in favour of action.

‘You may recall the council settled a refuse workers’ dispute in 2017. In most councils that would have been that.

‘But this is Birmingham – and the council has managed to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory, with the spectacular own goal of making secret payments to another union.’